I have fond memories of listening to Sox games on WCFL as a kid, but come on, Elson was incredibly bland and boring. He was a radio guy, and there'd be extended periods of him saying absolutely nothing, and all you heard was the murmur of the crowd in the background.

Ha! You recall what I recall. Supposedly he was more animated before he went off to WWII, but he was surely more terse than Ed Farmer when he came back. Milo and the like did all the heavy lifting.

Remind me, when Harry came here, didn't Elson replace hin in Oakland? It was simply time for a change. Like now with Hawk.

I mean, if all we can remember is White Owl Wallop and Friendly Bob, what does it say for Elson's broadcasts? Something like Hawk's catchphrases being remembered more than the broadcasts. "Catchphrase" is a term used to describe what an outsider would call a cliche.

Ha! You recall what I recall. Supposedly he was more animated before he went off to WWII, but he was surely more terse than Ed Farmer when he came back. Milo and the like did all the heavy lifting.

Remind me, when Harry came here, didn't Elson replace hin in Oakland? It was simply time for a change. Like now with Hawk.

I mean, if all we can remember is White Owl Wallop and Friendly Bob, what does it say for Elson's broadcasts? Something like Hawk's catchphrases being remembered more than the broadcasts. "Catchphrase" is a term used to describe what an outsider would call a cliche.

One catchphrase I remember was when a Sox player made an error;
''Remember fans, errors like hits and runs are all part of baseball''.
Also ''Pierce looking up at the big board in center field''.
In his pre-game show I remember ''I'll be back with some more Dugout Dope in just a minute''
I loved when he touted an upcoming series ''Dont forget fans the Red Sox with Ted Williams, Jackie Jensen, Mel Parnell and all that gang will be here for Friday night game, a Saturday afternoon game and a tremendous Sunday Double Header''.

__________________Coming up to bat for our White Sox is the Mighty Mite, Nelson Fox.

In many respects, this is the most important question facing Sox brass. If the announcers can be seen as part of the marketing arm of the team (which I believe), then in my opinion some of the blame on the attendance problems over the past decade can be traced to Harrelson. He is one of the biggest homers when it comes to announcers on in TV (from a recent poll), so you can draw a conclusion that he has not been successful in creating new fans, since the Sox have had attendance problems for years.

Fandom is not all created merely by wins and losses (as can be seen by the support of teams like the Cubs) but by latent and nurtured feelings about a team, what it stands for, its public perception, how it plays to a person's feelings and sense of belonging. Harrelson creates a feeling of persecution, made up of bad calls, bad luck, and incessant woe-is-me play by play. People tune it to baseball as a diversion and they don't want to hear all this negativity.

Harrelson has not created new fans because he only preaches to the choir. And the choir does not like him universally, either.

Would we be having this discussion if Vin Scully were the announcer for the past 20 years?

The thread should have been closed immediately after this post. Perfect and exactly right.

Remind me, when Harry came here, didn't Elson replace him in Oakland? It was simply time for a change. Like now with Hawk.

Bob Elson and Red Rush both went out to Oakland when Harry came here before the 1971 season.

The A's announced the Elson/Rush hiring soon after the 1970 season ended, but it was several months later before the Sox chose to hire Harry from among a group of candidates that included Vince Doyle from Detroit and Jimmy Dudley from the Seattle Pilots.